Miranda Salcedo, Martin Torres-Sandoval win first DEL cross country meet of the season
After the Shadow Hills High girls’ cross country team reached the CIF State meet last year, there may have been some doubt that the squad could do it again after star runner Marjourie Lopez departed for USC.
But on Wednesday at Xavier Prep, in the Desert Empire League’s first meet of the season, the Knights left little doubt that they will be a force for at least a second consecutive year.
Miranda Salcedo (18:22.0) won the girls’ race, and the top three finishers were from Shadow Hills. Teammates Rudy Avila (18:28.1) and Julia Fernandez (18:42.3) were second and third and La Quinta High’s Madison Miller (18:57.8) and Saverya Guerrero (19:05.4) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
As a team, Shadow Hills finished first, followed by La Quinta High and Xavier Prep rounding out the top three.
Salcedo, Fernandez, Avila and Arianna Lupian (eighth, 19:33.5) were the top four DEL finishers in the girls’ race at the 42nd annual Woodbridge Classic cross country race in Irvine on Saturday. They set a team record at the race, and Salcedo said that it gave the Knights confidence coming into Wednesday's race.
"I think it gave us that confidence," Salcedo said. "We ran together today and we kept each other going."
On the boys’ side on Wednesday, La Quinta’s Martin Torres-Sandoval (15:48.7) took first place in the 3-mile race among all DEL boys. His top time in three DEL meets last year — all three wins — was 16:05.8.
Torres-Sandoval is aiming for his second consecutive DEL title, which he’ll have a chance at in early November at the league championships.
"I'm feeling good," Torres-Sandoval said. "My last race I was sick and it had been raining, so my time wasn't great, but I think I'm getting back to 100%. Our team has been working hard, so we expect it to be a good season."
Rounding out the top five in the boys’ race were Luis-Fernandez Martinez of La Quinta (16:18.7), Parker Knickerbocker (16:27.4) of La Quinta, Sebastian Martinez (16:28.7) of Shadow Hills and Kingston Bednar of Xavier Prep (16:32.4).
La Quinta, Shadow Hills and Palm Desert High were the top three teams in the race.
The times were solid despite windy conditions that swirled dust into the air during the two races. Four of the top five finishers in the boys’ race improved on their times from their previous race earlier this month. Two of the three top five girls also improved times for their race Saturday at the 42nd annual Woodbridge Cross Country Classic.
In doing so, in just the first DEL meet of the season, the league showed that it might even be better than it was last year, during a historic season for the league.
The Xavier Prep and Shadow Hills girls each reached the State meet, in Divisions 5 and 3, respectively. The Saints finished eighth as a team in Division 5, and the Knights placed 13th in Division 3 in a meet at Woodward Park in Fresno that included the top high school cross country teams in California.
The top runners from each program are now gone, but each program evidently remains strong.
“We didn’t win a league title last year, so that’s one of our goals,” Shadow Hills head coach Richie DeTamble said. “We also want to do better at CIF and make it back to State.”
Salcedo was the sixth finisher at the CIF State meet for Shadow Hills. Now she’s first. DeTamble said that it’s a testament to how hard the girls have worked, both at Shadow Hills and in the league, over the offseason.
The belief, DeTamble said, is that the league will help push his team back to the CIF Southern Section Finals and hopefully back to CIF State, which is now the benchmark in the program.
“It’s State or bust,” DeTamble said, “and we’re on our way.”
DEL top 25-finishers
Girls' race
1 Salcedo Miranda, Shadow Hills 18:22.0
2 Avila Ruby, Shadow Hills 18:28.1
3 Julia Fernandez, Shadow Hills 18:42.3
4 Madison Miller, La Quinta 18:57.8
5 Saveyra Guerrero, La Quinta 19:05.4
6 Alyssa Lopez, La Quinta 19:08.1
7 Ashleigh Schein, Xavier Prep 19:23.1
8 Arianna Lupian, Shadow Hills 19:33.5
9 Raisa Guerrero, La Quinta 20:11.9
10 Taylor Leon, La Quinta 20:13.4
11 Jaelyn McDermott, Shadow Hills 20:18.7
12 Cynthia Ramirez, Shadow Hills 20:46.9
13 Alyssa Eggers, La Quinta 21:06.4
14 Sinna Coffin, La Quinta 21:09.1
15 Brooke Chavez, Xavier Prep 21:15.4
16 Brooklyn Rodriguez, Xavier Prep 21:20.4
17 Frida Arriaga, Shadow Hills 21:23.1
18 Emily Feffer, Xavier Prep 21:34.6
19 Savannah Toso, Palm Desert 22:08.9
20 Donnielys Garita, Rancho Mirage 22:29.6
21 Dani Wood, Xavier Prep 22:29.4
22 Alexandra Espinosa. Palm Desert 23:02.4
23 Iris Donato, Palm Springs 23:21.7
24 Xochiyotl Calderon. Rancho Mirage 23:35.9
25 Alanna Carmin, Palm Springs 24:24.6
Boys' race
1 Martin Torres, La Quinta 15:48.7
2 Luis-Fernando Martinez, La Quinta 16:18.7
3 Parker Knickerbocker, La Quinta 16:27.4
4 Sebastian Martinez, Shadow Hills 16:28.7
5 Kingston Bednar, Xavier Prep 16:32.4
6 Jack Conway, Shadow Hills 17:05.1
7 Ian Amick, Palm Desert 17:16.5
8 Rudy Mendoza, La Quinta 17:17.4
9 Simon Cook, Palm Desert 17:22.7
10 Jorge Mendoza, La Quinta 17:22.9
11 Jesus Espinosa, La Quinta 17:30.5
12 Ernesto Ibarra, Shadow Hills 17:37.2
13 David Santibez, Shadow Hills 17:39.9
14 David Gattica, Shadow Hills 17:41.5
15 Henry Snyder, Palm Desert 17:42.1
16 Kaleb Rubalcava, Shadow Hills 17:47.3
17 Jake Hermsen, Xavier Prep 17:58.4
18 Julian Angulo, Xavier Prep 17:59.4
19 Angel Lerena, La Quinta 18:04.1
20 Maximus Rubalcava, Shadow Hills 18:07.3
21 Connor Crowe, Palm Desert 18:44.4
22 Josiah Alvare,z Palm Desert 18:49.2
23 Caelan Gomez, Xavier Prep 19:07.8
24 Gabriel Bringas, Palm Desert 19:07.5
25 Ethan Lee, Palm Desert 19:19.2
Andrew John covers sports in the Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Miranda Salcedo leads Shadow Hills in DEL cross country meet
